Our trip to Paris

Bon jour mes amis.

I’m still mentally in Paris, so this post is a joy to create for you. Here are some random images to share…

The birds eat the crumbs at this cafe. 

 

Paris has a rental bike program. We didn’t take advantage of it, but we saw a lot of people on these bikes all over town. There are frequent pick up and drop off stations like these… 

 

I didn’t realize how behind I was on the current styles until I saw this lamp. Marked 725 Euros (over $1,000), it wasn’t on my wish list. 

 

The pyramid at the Louvre, at night (obviously!) 

 

And by day

We visited the panoramic terrace on the top of the Printemps department store. They had these rabbits up there that they were placing throughout the store.  

 

We picnicked on the tip of the Île de la Cité. 

 

The Arc De Triomphe by day… 

 
And with the sun setting through the arch.

We did some of this…

And this…

And thanks to Dorie Greenspan’s recommendations, a lot of this…

As predicted, we spent a lot of time plotting our next macaron, walked off the map (literally) and slept a ridiculous amount (we were both very tired). We strolled through and got completely lost in the Bois de Bologne (a HUGE parkland on the west side of Paris, hunting grounds of royal families past). We walked from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champ-Élysées, past the Louvre and down the Seine, to the Bastille, almost on a daily basis. We discovered new (to us) parks and gardens. Paris is our favorite city, and we’ve been fortunate that M.’s work has taken him to France a couple of times a year. I sometimes go with him, but it’s been a while since we’ve gone together. This trip allowed us to rediscover the things we love, and discover new favorites.

One day was M’s surprise day, and it was filled with chocolate. After doing excessive research, I selected a couple (okay, eight) of the top chocolatiers for us to visit and purchase some chocolates to do a side by side tasting. M. was delighted to find we would be spending the day tasting, buying and hoarding chocolate. We have been devoted to La Maison du Chocolat for many years, and we wanted to find out if they still had the best chocolates (in our opinion).

We started at Debauve & Gallais, one of if not the oldest chocolatier in Paris. The chocolates are old fashioned, without the flavor inventiveness that one frequently finds in chocolates these days (chocolate with cheese, anyone?)

We hit the biggie, Pierre Herme, next. We weren’t huge fans of his chocolates, but his pastries and macarons are the ultimate. I would simply run out of gushing adjectives if I had to describe the buttery croissants, the velvety caramel pastry cream in the 2000 feuilles. The perfection of the chocolate macarons. The rose macarons. You have no idea how hard it was not to park myself outside his door and eat three meals a day there. We were there on a weekday, but when we passed by on Saturday, the line was out the door.

After Pierre Herme, we visited Christian Constant. His shop was very inviting with grand displays of candied fruits in the windows. We purchased about a dozen bon bons and moved on.

Next, we visited Jean-Charles Rochoux, with his chocolate alligators in the window. His creations were amazingly inventive, and the aroma walking into the door was intoxicating. They must have made the fleur de sel caramels the day we visited, because the air was redolent with caramelized sugar. 

It was hard to tear ourselves away and move on, but we regretfully left and walked a short distance to Jean-Paul Hevin. His chocolates were beautiful and modern and we had a hard time making our choices.

Next, we headed to Patrick Roger. The skies were darkening and we hadn’t brought the umbrella, but all was forgotten when we entered Roger’s shop. We made a selection of chocolates and macarons and stepped outside to plot our next move. 

We still had two shops left, Michel Chaudun and La Maison du Chocolat, but we were tiring and a light rain was starting to fall. We hurried in the direction of the Métro, but it quickly became clear that the raindrops were becoming rainfall. We grabbed seats under cover at a cafe and ordered Cokes to nurse while we rode out the rain.

M. guarded our shopping bag of chocolate to prevent it from getting wet, and after it started hailing, we decided to move inside as our jeans were getting wet from the spray. After spending 45 minutes there, hitting Chaudun was out of the question as they were now closed. We thought we could make La Maison du Chocolat, but we would have to hurry. We arrived there two minutes before closing, and selected just a few of our favorite pralines and ganaches. Then it was back to the hotel for the tasting.

We tasted ganaches side by side, and the flavor differences were very pronounced. Here is a photo of our “tasting notes” (that sounds way too grand for the rudimentary numbering system we used.) The results:

1.  La Maison du Chocolat

2.  Patrick Roger

3.  Jean-Charles Rochoix

4.  (tie) Pierre Herme, Jean-Paul Hevin

5.  Christian Constant

6.  Debauve & Gallais

These were just our preferences, and none of these chocolates were bad, they were just different degrees of great.

We ate dinner one night at Laduree. We love Laduree and always have great meals there. I had an appetizer (called an “entree” in France) of a floating island with gazpacho. It was out of this world good. My main course (called a “plate”) was salmon over pain perdu with melted fresh mozzarella and reduced balsamic vinegar and a few other things that escape me now. WOW! That meal reminded me of the connection between good food and the pleasure center of our brain. So many times we eat a lot of food but don’t feel satisfied; I believe what we are looking for is taste satisfaction, not quantity, in order to feel satiated. My taste buds were dancing and my entire body felt like there was a mild electric charge running through it.

On our last night, we strolled from our hotel to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champ-Élysées, through the Tuileries, past the Louvre, along the Seine, into St. Germain and then the Latin Quarter for dinner. As we slowly walked back, we tried to drink in the sights, smells and feeling of being in the most beautiful city, to save and nurture it after we returned home. We’re still under its spell, and I hope we will be for a long time to come.

Gianduja Truffles, Or Make This Into Something Before I Eat the Whole Bar

15 years ago, I was an internal auditor just hired by a media company. I had previously worked in indentured servitude public accounting, and spent a couple of years slaving away while my idiot boss took credit for my ideas working for a beverage company. Regrettably, the media company I worked for no longer exists (dinosaurs are extinct, and so are a lot of newspaper companies). 

This was a Great Company. I got a paycheck on my very first day (they paid in advance). I also got on a plane the very first day, but I had a check in my hand and a big grin on my face. After just six short months, the audit schedule had me going to Switzerland. Three months after that, London. The following year I was supposed to go to Australia, but we sold that division and that was the end of my foreign travel at the company’s expense.

After our month in London was done, a coworker and I took off on a European vacation. After Switzerland, I had set out for Paris alone so it was great to have a kindred spirit to explore with. We went to Belgium, Luxembourg and Paris, and it was all one big chocolate eating extravaganza as far as I was concerned.

In Brussels, I discovered Gianduja. Gianduja is a combination of chocolate and hazelnut, sort of like Nutella, but not as sweet and solid at room temperature. At Leonidas (an “affordable” Belgian chocolatier), the Gianduja was wrapped in gold foil. I brought it back as gifts (…one for you, two for me…). In the years since, I have pined away for Gianduja, occasionally finding it in a states-side Leonidas store (my friend almost wrecked the car when I shouted out “LEONIDAS!!!” as we were driving through Los Gatos a few years back.)

Last month, when I was placing my tide-me-over-the-summer chocolate order from chocosphere.com, I noticed they have Gianduja. So I ordered a 2 pound bar, figuring I’d find some recipes to use it in and wouldn’t that be swell. Well, it would have been if M. and I didn’t eat the whole bar over the next couple of weeks. So I ordered more, and then I made these.

Yes, Gianduja truffles. These totally top the Nutella truffles. I hope you make them. Soon.

Gianduja Truffles (adapted from The Chocolate Gourmand)

1 1/2 pounds Gianduja, chopped in large pieces

1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 cups heavy cream

Heat the cream until it feels warm to the touch. Melt the chocolate and Gianduja in a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water). Remove the bowl from the double boiler, add the heated cream and stir until well combined. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until firm. Scoop out truffle sized pieces and, working quickly, form them into roundish shapes. 

You can dust them with cocoa powder (not Dutched), but I like to roll them in tempered chocolate. An excellent resource for how to temper chocolate is here. A good rule of thumb is to work with a pound of chocolate or more, as it’s harder to keep smaller quantities at the correct temperature. And if you don’t plan to serve them to chocolate snobs, you can just melt the chocolate and not temper it at all. Make sure you let it cool before rolling the truffle centers in the chocolate. And if you don’t temper, your truffles may show some “bloom,” but they will taste every bit as good as those rolled in tempered chocolate. You can also carefully melt a few ounces of Gianduja in the microwave and drizzle it over the finished truffles for a nice effect.

***

I made these a while back for my kitchen party. When I was rounding up the leftover cakes, cookies and chocolates to take to work, M. put out a protective hand, claiming the Gianduja truffles.

Yup, that’s my man.

Gianduja Truffles, Or Make This Into Something Before I Eat the Whole Bar

15 years ago, I was an internal auditor just hired by a media company. I had previously worked in indentured servitude public accounting, and spent a couple of years slaving away while my idiot boss took credit for my ideas working for a beverage company. Regrettably, the media company I worked for no longer exists (dinosaurs are extinct, and so are a lot of newspaper companies). 

This was a Great Company. I got a paycheck on my very first day (they paid in advance). I also got on a plane the very first day, but I had a check in my hand and a big grin on my face. After just six short months, the audit schedule had me going to Switzerland. Three months after that, London. The following year I was supposed to go to Australia, but we sold that division and that was the end of my foreign travel at the company’s expense.

After our month in London was done, a coworker and I took off on a European vacation. After Switzerland, I had set out for Paris alone so it was great to have a kindred spirit to explore with. We went to Belgium, Luxembourg and Paris, and it was all one big chocolate eating extravaganza as far as I was concerned.

In Brussels, I discovered Gianduja. Gianduja is a combination of chocolate and hazelnut, sort of like Nutella, but not as sweet and solid at room temperature. At Leonidas (an “affordable” Belgian chocolatier), the Gianduja was wrapped in gold foil. I brought it back as gifts (…one for you, two for me…). In the years since, I have pined away for Gianduja, occasionally finding it in a states-side Leonidas store (my friend almost wrecked the car when I shouted out “LEONIDAS!!!” as we were driving through Los Gatos a few years back.)

Last month, when I was placing my tide-me-over-the-summer chocolate order from chocosphere.com, I noticed they have Gianduja. So I ordered a 2 pound bar, figuring I’d find some recipes to use it in and wouldn’t that be swell. Well, it would have been if M. and I didn’t eat the whole bar over the next couple of weeks. So I ordered more, and then I made these.

Yes, Gianduja truffles. These totally top the Nutella truffles. I hope you make them. Soon.

Gianduja Truffles (adapted from The Chocolate Gourmand)

1 1/2 pounds Gianduja, chopped in large pieces

1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 cups heavy cream

Heat the cream until it feels warm to the touch. Melt the chocolate and Gianduja in a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water). Remove the bowl from the double boiler, add the heated cream and stir until well combined. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until firm. Scoop out truffle sized pieces and, working quickly, form them into roundish shapes. 

You can dust them with cocoa powder (not Dutched), but I like to roll them in tempered chocolate. An excellent resource for how to temper chocolate is here. A good rule of thumb is to work with a pound of chocolate or more, as it’s harder to keep smaller quantities at the correct temperature. And if you don’t plan to serve them to chocolate snobs, you can just melt the chocolate and not temper it at all. Make sure you let it cool before rolling the truffle centers in the chocolate. And if you don’t temper, your truffles may show some “bloom,” but they will taste every bit as good as those rolled in tempered chocolate. You can also carefully melt a few ounces of Gianduja in the microwave and drizzle it over the finished truffles for a nice effect.

***

I made these a while back for my kitchen party. When I was rounding up the leftover cakes, cookies and chocolates to take to work, M. put out a protective hand, claiming the Gianduja truffles.

Yup, that’s my man.